brazil

Rio de Janeiro – A photoset

December 5, 2011 by Lesley Tellez

The beach in Leblon, where we stayed

They sell bags of these on the beaches -- they're fluffy, donut-shaped snacks that come in salty and sweet flavors.

Sunset overlooking Leblon beach

One of the views from the Christ the Redeemer mountain

A samba band boarded the little tram that took us up the mountain.

Jack fruit dangled from the trees, outside the windows of the tram near Christ the Redeemer.

Rio has agaves too! These are outside one of the subway stations.

The Escadaria Selarón, a famous set of mosaic steps in Rio's Lapa neighborhood

Cruising the markets of São Paulo, Brazil

December 2, 2011 by Lesley Tellez

The cajú fruit, pictured at São Paulo's Municipal Market.

On my second day in town I booked a tour with Around SP, a small company in São Paulo that offers tours of the city’s cultural sites. I told my guide, Luis, that I wanted a culinary tour, so we zoomed off in his car one morning with plans to hit some of the city’s markets, bakeries and dessert shops.

The Food Tour Begins

One of our first stops was a feira, or outdoor neighborhood market. It looked just like the tianguis: vendors had set up under plastic tarps, selling fruits and vegetables arranged into attractive piles. They called out to customers passing by. (This was no doubt the Portuguese equivalent of “We have papaya! 10 pesos a kilo!”)

The feira had things I’d never seen before: bulbous, thick squash shaped like a barbell; short spiky cucumbers; wild Brazilian cabbage known as couve, shredded and wrapped in plastic. Thick bulbs of garlic hung from ropes. Mounds of spices sat in large bowls — whole cumin seeds, peppercorns, dried chilies.

A big meat and seafood section lay beyond all the fruit, with the items displayed in neat rows inside plastic display cases. There were fresh sardines, calamari, and whole, fresh fish that I didn’t recognize. I was kind of in awe about how orderly this section was. In Mexico all the meat sits out in the open and kind of piled on top of each other.

The sardines, which I would've bought if I had a kitchen.

Whole cumin seeds at the São Paulo feira

They sell cinnamon just like in Mexico!

This is the couve. It's a garnish for feijoada, a typical Brazilian dish.

Dried herbs are sold bundled with red chiles.

The market prices are displayed on a clothesline.

The spiky cucumber (it has a tail, too) is known as maxixe.

Moving on: São Paulo’s Mercado Municipão

Toward the end of the day we stopped at São Paulo’s Municipal Market, a huge indoor place filled with fish, produce, sausages, nuts, dried fruits, spices, thick blocks of guava ate, and even cacahuates japoneses. (In Portuguese they’re called amendoim, and they come in barbecue flavor!)

It was pretty much a gourmet-food lover’s paradise. Bacalao, several varities, lay stacked maybe two feet high, next to linguica and soft cheeses, hard cheeses, olives. We tasted soft, spreadable catupiry cheese on crackers, and I looked at an oyster bar longingly, where people sat slurping and drinking beer. The market’s second floor has a food court, where you can supposedly find the best mortadella sandwiches in the city.

A view of São Paulo's Municipal Market from the second floor

I still wasn’t very hungry, so we walked around the fruit area. I tasted jabuticaba (pronounced jah-boo-chee-KA-bah), an oversize grape kind of like a capulín. And, best of all, I tasted cajú, the cashew fruit.

Didn’t know cashew came from a fruit, you say? I didn’t either. The weird thing is that the cashew lies outside the fruit itself, like a little hat. You have to open the shell and fish out the cashew. The flesh itself, on the main part of the fruit, was the strangest thing I’d ever tasted — rubbery, fibrous and juicy like a ripe peach. I think I laughed while I was eating it, because I didn’t know what else to do.

Here is a picture of the cajú, again:

The cajú fruit, pictured at São Paulo's Municipal Market.

And the jabuticaba, which is fantastic in a caiparinha. And it apparently grows on trees, literally on the bark itself.

Pão de queijo: The perfect end to a great day

We finished our tour with a piece of pão de queijo, a stretchy, dense cheese bun made with tapioca flour. As a sidenote, I think I had pão de queijo every single day in Brazil. I think it might be the world’s most perfect food.

Rio de Janeiro photos coming next!

A few thoughts on São Paulo

December 1, 2011 by Lesley Tellez

I didn’t know anything about São Paulo when I arrived there last week.

Crayton had told me it was big, but I didn’t expect how big: skyscrapers and high-rise apartment towers, a solid chain of them, squeezed together end-to-end on the horizon like a mountain range. Multi-story buildings loomed against the highways. More people technically lived in Mexico City, but São Paulo felt like Gotham from the Batman movies. I was dwarfed — slapped — by its grit and bustle almost immediately. (Where were the charming four-story art deco buildings that I know and love?)

I liked the place right away. São Paulo is the fastest-growing economy in Latin America. There’s a sense of urgency and order there that doesn’t exist in Mexico City. People have places to go, money to make. I ended up on Avenida Paulista my first day in town — it’s a wide avenue lined with skyscrapers, and the center of the city’s financial district. People in suits rushed by, talking on cell phones and texting. They crossed at the stoplights en masse and then disappeared into the subway stations. It felt just like New York.

São Paulo is super expensive, but since I was on vacation, I did a lot of upscale Paulista things that I wouldn’t have been able to do if I lived there. I wandered around the Jardim Paulista — a high-end Polanco-like neighborhood — and bought a lacy scarf and yummy-smelling hand soap from a boutique. (“Is this a gift?” the soap lady asked me. “Oh no, it’s for me,” I said, kind of embarrassed.) I booked a day tour with Around SP and visited some really cool São Paulo markets.

And we braved the traffic. Every Paulista has a car, so it takes at least 30 minutes — repeat, at least — to get anywhere. Crayton and I debated over whose traffic was worse, DF or SP. We were split down the middle.

Overall, I was only there for two days, but I left feeling intrigued and kind of mystified. São Paulo didn’t seem like an easy place to live, but it hinted that it rewarded the people who stuck it out.

On another note, I apologize for the lack of posting lately. I was traveling most of November, then sick, and now I’m finally feeling better. I promise things will be busier around here in the next few months. More photos from São Paulo and Rio to come!

The view from our hotel in the São Paulo Hilton

A São Paulo office tower, near the Centro

A small São Paulo apartment building